Editing Numbers station (section)

==History==
According to the notes of ''[[The Conet Project]]'',<ref>{{cite news |first=David |last=Segal |date=3 August 2004 |title=The shortwave and the calling: For Akin Fernandez, cryptic messages became music to his ears |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=C01 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35647-2004Aug2.html}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mason|1991|pages=5–6}}</ref> which has compiled recordings of these transmissions, number stations have been reported since {{nobr|[[World War I]]}} with the numbers transmitted in Morse code. It is reported that [[Archduke Anton of Austria]] in his youth during World War I used to listen in to their transmissions, writing them down and passing them on to the Austrian military intelligence.<ref name="first-stations">{{cite web |url=https://www.numbers-stations.com/articles/the-first-numbers-stations/ |title=The First Numbers Stations |date=30 November 2014 |publisher=NSRIC |first=Ryan |last=Schaum |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

Numbers stations were most abundant during the [[Cold War]] era. According to an internal Cold War-era report of the Polish Ministry of the Interior, numbers stations DCF37 (3.370&nbsp;MHz) and DFD21 (4.010&nbsp;MHz) were transmitted from [[West Germany]] beginning in the early 1950s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bury |first=Jan |date=October 2007 |title=From the archives: The U.S. and West German agent radio ciphers |url=http://www.swldxer.co.uk/polish.mht |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121223120639/http://www.swldxer.co.uk/polish.mht |url-status=usurped |archive-date=23 December 2012 |journal=Cryptologia |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=343–357 |doi=10.1080/01611190701578104 |issn=0161-1194 |s2cid=205487634|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Many stations from this era continue to broadcast and some long-time stations may have been taken over by different operators.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2014-04-16|title=The spooky world of the 'numbers stations'|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24910397|access-date=2021-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.numbers-stations.com|title=Numbers Stations Research|website=Numbers Stations Research}}</ref> The [[Ministry of the Interior (Czech Republic)|Czech Ministry of the Interior]] and the [[Swedish Security Service]] have both acknowledged the use of numbers stations by [[Czechoslovakia]] for espionage,<ref name="Säkerhetspolisen2015">{{cite web |title=Lyssna på ett hemligt telegram |url=http://www.sakerhetspolisen.se/ovrigt/pressrum/aktuellt/aktuellt/2015-01-23-lyssna-pa-ett-hemligt-telegram.html |publisher=[[Säkerhetspolisen]] |access-date=12 March 2016 |language=sv |date=23 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308174151/http://sakerhetspolisen.se/ovrigt/pressrum/aktuellt/aktuellt/2015-01-23-lyssna-pa-ett-hemligt-telegram.html |archive-date=8 March 2016 |url-status=live |trans-title=Listen to a secret telegram |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref name="Swedish Security Service">{{cite web |url=https://www.numbers-stations.com/articles/the-swedish-security-service-releases-info-on-a-numbers-station/ |title=The Swedish Security Service Releases Info on a Numbers Station |date=24 July 2015 |access-date=12 March 2016 |publisher=NSRIC |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Catinka Mannerfelt Agneskog |title=Säpos hemliga radiotelegram |url=http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/sapos-hemliga-radiotelegram_4273023.svd |access-date=23 January 2015 |publisher=SvD Nyheter |language=sv}}</ref> with declassified documents proving the same. Few [[QSL card|QSL]] responses have been received from numbers stations<ref>stations KKN44, BFBX and OLX {{cite web |url=http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html |title=Shortwave Espionage |last=Mason |first=Simon |access-date=28 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203183625/http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html |archive-date=3 December 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> by [[shortwave listening|shortwave listeners]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=AMARAL|first=Cristiano Torres|title=Guia Moderno do Radioescuta|publisher=Amazon|year=2021|isbn=978-65-00-20800-9|location=Brasília|pages=333}}</ref> who sent reception reports to stations that identified themselves or to entities the listeners believed responsible for the broadcasts, which is the expected behaviour of a non-clandestine station.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-01-24|title=OLX|url=http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page61.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124031223/http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page61.html|archive-date=2015-01-24|access-date=2020-09-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Helms |first=Harry L. |title=How to Tune the Secret Shortwave Spectrum |year=1981 |publisher=TAB Books|location=Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania |isbn=0-8306-1185-1 |page=52 |chapter=Espionage Radio Activity}}</ref>

One well-known numbers station was the E03 "[[Lincolnshire Poacher (numbers station)|Lincolnshire Poacher]]",<ref name="E03 › Priyom.org">{{Cite web|url=http://priyom.org/number-stations/english/e03|title=E03|website=Priyom.org|language=en|access-date=2017-06-17}}</ref> which is thought to have been run by the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.numbers-stations.com/E03 |title=E03 The LincolnShire Poacher |access-date=6 September 2014}}</ref> It was first broadcast from [[Bletchley Park]] in the mid-1970s but later was broadcast from [[RAF Akrotiri]] in [[Cyprus]]. It ceased broadcasting in 2008.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Gorvett|first=Zaria|title=The ghostly radio station that no one claims to run|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170801-the-ghostly-radio-station-that-no-one-claims-to-run |date=15 July 2020 |access-date=2021-07-12|website=BBC Future |language=en}}</ref>

In 2001, the United States tried the [[Cuban Five]] on the charge of spying for Cuba. The group had received and decoded messages that had been broadcast from the "Atención" number station in Cuba.<ref name="MNT">{{cite news|last=Sokol|first=Brett|date=8 February 2001|title=Espionage Is in the Air|work=Miami New Times|url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010221161138/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html|archive-date=21 February 2001}}</ref>

=== Atención spy case ===
The "Atención" station of Cuba became the world's first numbers station to be officially and publicly accused of transmitting to spies. It was the centerpiece of a United States federal court espionage trial, following the arrest of the [[Wasp Network]] of Cuban spies in 1998. The U.S. prosecutors claimed the accused were writing down number codes received from Atención, using Sony hand-held shortwave receivers, and typing the numbers into [[laptop]] computers to decode spying instructions. The FBI testified that they had entered a spy's apartment in 1995, and copied the computer decryption program for the Atención numbers code. They used it to decode Atención spy messages, which the prosecutors unveiled in court.<ref name="MNT" />

The United States government's evidence included the following three examples of decoded Atención messages.<ref name="MNT" />
* "prioritize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis"
* "Under no circumstances should [agents] German nor Castor fly with BTTR or another organization on days 24, 25, 26 and 27." (BTTR is the anti-Castro airborne group [[Brothers to the Rescue]])
* "Congratulate all the female comrades for International Day of the Woman."

The moderator of an e-mail list for global numbers station hobbyists claimed that "Someone on the Spooks list had already cracked the code for a repeated transmission [from Havana to Miami] if it was received garbled." Such code-breaking may be possible if a [[one-time pad]] decoding key is used more than once.<ref name="MNT" /> If used properly, however, the code [[One-time pad#Perfect secrecy|cannot be broken]].

=== Recent cases ===
In 2001, [[Ana Belén Montes]], a senior US [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] analyst, was arrested and charged with espionage. The federal prosecutors alleged that Montes was able to communicate with the Cuban [[Intelligence Directorate]] through encoded messages, with instructions being received through "encrypted shortwave transmissions from Cuba".

In 2006, [[Carlos Alvarez (professor)|Carlos Alvarez]] and his wife, [[Elsa Alvarez|Elsa]], were arrested and charged with espionage. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida<ref>''United States v. Alvarez'', 506 F. Supp. 2d 1285 (S.D. Fla. 2007)</ref>{{which|date=January 2020}} stated that "defendants would receive assignments via shortwave radio transmissions".{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

In June 2009, the United States similarly charged [[Walter Kendall Myers]] with conspiracy to spy for Cuba, and receiving and decoding messages broadcast from a numbers station operated by the Cuban Intelligence Directorate to further that conspiracy.<ref>{{cite web |first=Dirk |last=Rijmenants |url=https://www.ciphermachinesandcryptology.com/papers/cuban_agent_communications.pdf |title=Cuban Agent Communications |year=2013 |type=PDF |website=Cipher Machines & Cryptology |access-date=30 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/05/myers.indictment.pdf |title=United States v. Walter Kendall Myers, United States District Court, District of Columbia, no. xxx. |access-date=26 August 2010}}</ref> As discovered by the FBI up to 2010, one way that Russian agents of the [[Illegals Program]] were receiving instructions was via coded messages on shortwave radio.<ref name=":0" />
It has been reported that the United States has used number stations to communicate encoded information to persons in other countries.<ref name="MNT" /> There are also claims that [[State Department]]-operated stations, such as KKN50 and KKN44, used to broadcast similar "numbers" messages or related traffic, although these radio stations have been off the air for many years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Helms |first=Harry L. |title=How to Tune the Secret Shortwave Spectrum |year=1981 |publisher=TAB Books] |location=Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania |isbn=0-8306-1185-1 |page=58 |chapter=Government and Military Communications}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Schimmel |first=Donald W. |title=The Underground Frequency Guide: A Directory of Unusual, Illegal, and Covert Radio Communications |edition=3 |location=Solana Beach, California |publisher=High Text Publications |year=1994 |isbn=1-878707-17-5 |pages=88–95}}</ref>

[[North Korea]] revived number broadcasts in July&nbsp;2016 after a hiatus of sixteen years, a move which some analysts speculated was [[psychological war]];<ref name="Choe-2016-07-21-NYT">{{cite news |last=Choe |first=Sang-Hun |date=2016-07-21 |title=North Korea revives coded spy broadcasts after 16&nbsp;year silence |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/world/asia/north-korea-spy-radio-broadcasts.html |access-date=2016-07-30}}</ref> sixteen such broadcasts occurred in 2017, including unusually timed transmissions in April.<ref name="Osbourne-2017-05-12-DExp">{{cite news |last=Osbourne |first=Simon |date=2017-05-12 |title=North Korea sends chilling coded radio messages to South Korea amid fears of WW3 |newspaper=[[Daily Express]] |url=http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/803845/North-Korea-broadcasts-coded-radio-messages-South-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-World-War-3}}</ref>